


golden eyes turned towards the future

by sunless_arizona



Series: grey brick road to the yellow pyramid [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Regained Memories, based off of 'flat dreams', flatlander bill, locked memories, sad Bill, triangle bill
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-07 23:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8821159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunless_arizona/pseuds/sunless_arizona
Summary: And when he notices his completely involuntary lack of color, that single thing that had first liberated him from the world before, he feels like breaking down, feels like crying until there's no life left in him. (mabel gets the excellent idea to try and bring bill back to 'turn him good' and dipper gets roped into it. things get infinitely more complicated when bill starts regaining the memories he'd locked away so long ago.)





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Flat Dreams](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6062122) by [PengyChan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PengyChan/pseuds/PengyChan). 



It’s their second summer at Gravity Falls, and though both of them expect adventure, neither of them expect another apocalypse. On the bus ride there, neither of them can help but be excited, much more so that when they first got on the bus to the sleepy town. Maybe it’s recounting the memories of the last year that sparks inspiration in Mabel, or maybe it’s just one of her moments of pure ‘genius.’ Perhaps it was just the startling sight of the statue out in the woods. She isn’t sure, and she doesn’t really care either way.

 

But somehow, someway, the two of them, Dipper and Mabel, were standing in front of the dead stone statue of Bill Cipher, getting ready to bring the malicious self-proclaimed all-seeing eye back from wherever energy went when it was erased by a memory gun. 

 

Dipper isn’t sure about this, but Mabel dragged him out here with so much hope in her that he can’t bring himself to truly protest. And besides, what is there  _ is _ some good in Bill after all? If anyone was going to bring it out it would be Mabel, unofficial Congresswoman and the most optimistic person anyone could ever hope to know.

 

Mabel isn’t nervous at all as she lights the multitude of candles with the help of Dipper. She has excitement fluttering around in her chest, along with that strange feeling that comes when you’re absolutely sure of something, and you just  _ know _ what you’re doing is right. The feeling doesn’t leave when the two begin to chant in unison.

 

Bill Cipher, at first, doesn’t feel anything. He’s trapped in his own mind, if you could even call it that. It’s just a black void, his memories scattered across it in no pattern whatsoever, their openings nothing more than a darker shade of black. He keeps coming across locked gateways - not doors, never doors, he’s lived too long and seen too much to think of  _ doors _ as the entrances to his memories. No, these are things incomprehensible, things that don’t and never will have a proper word.

 

However, as he was in the middle of doing nothing, feeling the hum of the immense energy in his form, his mind was brought to a screeching halt as information - what little he had left after that memory gun blasted him away into nothingness - and feeling and color and all the things he had come to know as himself were ripped away from him, replaced with a blinding white pain that killed his mind even further. The only things left, though he didn’t realize this (the pain was too great for him to even attempt to think), were the things he had back when he lived in Flatland - a complete and total lack of color, no special abilities to speak of, and a form that was weak compared to the amazingly powerful form he had taken after cheating his way to a time wish. Bill finally passed out from the pain as the spell took away everything he had gained from that wish, a tiny speck of his previously vast pool of pure energy being the only thing not released carefully into the physical environment.


	2. chapter one

Dipper and Mabel weren’t in control of the words they were saying now, the incantation taking initiative and finishing the spell for them. Neither of them were worried until they felt the power begin to funnel through their bodies, using them as a portal to the already magical environment that Gravity Falls and the surrounding area existed in. They could both feel the purely gigantic amounts of energy coursing through their bodies, and it  _ hurt. _ For the first time, Mabel began to have second thoughts, looking worriedly over at her brother, whose eyes were glowing an unnatural bright vivid blue. They reached out towards each other as the world went white.

 

Just as suddenly as it began, the pain stopped. Both the twins collapsed onto the ground, coughing and panting, eyes wide and hearts beating rapidly. As they slowly regained themselves, they noticed a small black and white figure on the ground in the center of the now-extinguished candles.

 

Mabel looked over to Dipper, eyes somehow wider than they were before. Dipper looked back, surprise showing clearly on his face.

 

“Dipper… Is that..?” Mabel asked hoarsely, eyes flicking back to the small form.

 

Dipper turned his head to face the triangle. “Yeah, Mabel… I think it is.”

 

“But, then, does that mean that’s his original form? The book said the spell would restore anything to its original state…” Mabel walked carefully over to the colorless triangle, hand reaching down cautiously to him. “Why doesn’t he have any color?”

 

Dipper hung back, wary of the self-proclaimed demon, even though he seemed to be in no state to hurt them. “I don’t know. And get back here Mabel, he might be dangerous!”

 

“Oh pshhh, Dipper! He’s out like a light.” Mabel softly pushed one of her fingers against his tiny white bowtie. “Bap!” She giggled and looked back up at Dipper, who looked terrified for a moment, before realizing that Bill hadn’t moved. He was still unsure, after all, what if this was all a trick and Bill attacked him when he came closer? But why would Bill wait for him to be closer anyway?

 

Dipper took a deep breath and walked slowly forward to the greyscale shape. He reached out a cautious finger and quickly poked one of Bill’s sides before drawing his hand back as quick as he could. 

 

“Oh come on Dipper, he’s not doing anything!” Mabel said encouragingly to her twin, lightly grabbing his arm and pressing his hand against the still form for a second.

 

“Mabel! Don’t do that!” Dipper was nearly panicking. He had just summoned a demon into the physical world! What if Weirdmageddon happened all over again? What if Bill  _ won _ this time? He started hyperventilating, only stopping when Mabel laid a hand on his arm.

 

“Dipper, calm down! I’m sure if Bill was going to do something, he would have done it by now!” Dipper took long calming breaths, Mabel’s words reassuring him. He was just about to speak when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Both he and Mabel stopped, dead silent, as they watched the small triangle attempt to pull himself up.

 

“Ugh…” Bill’s head hurt. No, his head didn’t hurt, his head was going to kill him with the pain it had ever so graciously decided to provide him with. He also cursed the pain that assaulted his eye when he tried to open it, the colors seemingly stabbing it with red-hot knives. “Oh, wow, since when did color still hurt my eye..?” He couldn’t think, couldn’t organize his thoughts enough to. His only option was to mumble to himself, slightly louder than he’d intended.

 

Bill sat still for a moment, shaky arms holding his fragile body up, eye shut tightly. After a few minutes of silence, he lifted one hand up to his eye and slowly opened it, rubbing at the pain. Luckily, the previous pain that resided in his mind was leaving quickly, now just a bad headache. His eye adjusted to the sudden light and color slowly, but he nearly jumped out of his… could it be called skin? when he noticed Pine Tree and Shooting Star staring blankly at him. A flash of white hot anger coursed through him, and he narrowed his eye at them.

 

“You! What did you do to me?!” The weak triangle attempted to jump up at them, but only managed to fall down, eye looking directly at the sun that shone through a gap in the leaves above. “Aghh!” He screamed, shutting his eye closed tightly again and shoving his hands roughly against it. He kept his eye shut tight as he attempted to regain his footing, taking his hands off his eye again. He opened his eye in alarm and let out a yelp has he felt hands picking him up and gently adjusting him so that he could stand.

 

Dipper watched in shock at the weakness Bill was showing. He stared at Mabel in surprise too when she carefully picked up the shape and helped him stand up, and just looking at the triangle’s eye, Dipper could tell that Bill was also surprised at this.

 

Bill quickly regained his composure once Shooting Star let him go. He looked back at the two and huffed angrily. “What did you  _ do _ to me?” He tried hard not to let the sudden loss of all power get to him.

 

“Brought you back, of course! What do you think?” Shooting Star grinned at him, before getting a more contemplative look on her face. “Why don’t you have any color, though?”

 

Bill’s eye widened, and he immediately looked down at himself to see that he had no color whatsoever - the brilliant yellow that once made his body shine like freedom was gone, replaced by a deep black with dull white patterns. 

And his eye widens impossibly more because “No, no, no, no, NO! This can’t be happening!” And he feels tears beginning to form at the corners of his eye, and he just can’t  _ take _ all this at once. As his tears - a strange transparent grey - grow, he falls to his knees and lets them fall, because he can’t deal with this right now and he feels the locks on his memories cracking angrily, painfully, and he thinks that maybe he remembers something. Something good, something  _ great _ , something he could never have again. And this only accentuates the angry despair that comes from his powerlessness and lack of color and he can’t do anything but curl up into a ball and cry while two of his biggest enemies stare at him in shock.

**Author's Note:**

> guess who can't write
> 
> that's right
> 
> me


End file.
